only sound Divines having tasted the old he did not desire the new but said the old is better Some Errours especially the Socinian he sets himself industriously against and cuts the very Sinews of them yet sometimes almost without naming them In the Doctrinal Part of several of his Discourses thou wilt find the depth of Polemical Divinity and in his Inferences from thence the sweetness of Practical some things which may exercise the profoundest Scholar and others which may instruct and edifie the weakest Christian nothing is more nervous than his Reasonings and nothing more affecting than his Applications Though he make great use of Schoolmen yet they are certainly more beholden to him than he to them he adopts their Notions but he refines them too and improves them and reforms them from the barbarousness in which they were expressed and dresseth them up in his own Language so far as the nature of the matter will permit and more clear terms are to be found and so makes them intelligible to Vulgar Capacities which in their original rudeness were obscure and strange even to Learned Heads In a word he handles the great Truths of the Gospel with that Perspicuity Gravity and Majesty which best becomes the Oracles of God and we have reason to believe that no judicious and unbiassed Reader but will acknowledge this to be incomparably the best practical Treatise the World ever saw in English upon this Subject What Dr. Jackson did to whom our Authour gave all due respect was more brief and in another way Dr. Preston did worthily upon the Attributes in his day but his Discourses likewise are more succinct when this Authours are more full and large But whatever were the mind of God in it it was not his Will that either of these two should live to finish what he had begun both being taken away when Preaching upon this Subject Happy Souls whose last breath was spent in so noble a Work * Psal 146.2 praising God while they had any being His Method is much the same in most of these Discourses both in the Doctrinal and Practical Part which will make the whole more plain and facile to ordinary Readers He rarely makes Objections and yet frequently answers them by implying them in those Propositions he lays down for the clearing up the Truths he asserts His Dexterity is admirable in the Applicatory Work where he not only brings down the highest Doctrines to the lowest Capacities but collects great varietie of proper pertinent useful and yet many times unthought of Inferences and that from those Truths which however they afford much matter for Inquisition and Speculation yet might seem unless to the most intelligent and judicious Christians to have a more remote influence upon Practice He is not like some School Writers who attenuate and rarefie the Matter they Discourse of to a degree bordering upon Annihilation at least beat it so thin that a puff of breath may blow it away spin their Thred so fine that the Cloth when made up proves useless Solidity dwindles into Niceties and what we thought we had got by their Assertions we lose by their Distinctions But if our Author have some Subtilties and superfine Notions in his Argumentations yet he condenseth them again and consolidates them into substantial and profitable Corolaries in his Applications And in them his main business is as to discipline a prophane World for its neglect of God and contempt of him in his most adorable and shining Perfections so likewise to shew how the Divine Attributes are not only infinitely excellent in themselves but a grand Foundation for all true Divine Worship and should be the great Motives to provoke men to the exercise of Faith and Love and Fear and Humility and all that holy Obedience they are called to by the Gospel And this without peradventure is the great end of all those rich Discoveries God hath in his Word made of himself to us And Reader if these elaborate Discourses of this holy Man through the Lord's blessing become a means of promoting Holiness in thee Psal 109.1 and stir thee up to love and live to the God of his praise we are well assured that his end in Preaching them is answered and so is ours in publishing them Thine in the Lord EDW. VEEL RI. ADAMS The several Discourses in this Volume VIZ. Page 1. 47. THE Existence of God and Practical Atheism from Psal 14.1 The Fool hath said in his heart there is no God c. Page 109. 129. God a Spirit and Spiritual Worship from John 4.24 God is a Spirit and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and truth Page 179. The Eternity of God from Psal 90.2 Before the Mountains were brought forth or ever thou hadst formed the Earth and the World Even from everlasting to everlasting thou art God Page 203. The Immutability of God From Psal 102 26 27. They shall perish but thou shalt endure Yea all of them shall wax old like a Garment as a Vesture shalt thou change them and they shall be changed But thou art the same and thy years shall have no end Page 241. The Omnipresence of God from Jer. 23.24 Can any hide himself in secret places that I shall not see him saith the Lord. Do not I fill Heaven and Earth saith the Lord Page 272. God's Infinite Knowledge from Psal 147.5 Great is our Lord and of great Power His Vnderstanding is infinite Page 341. God's Infinite Wisdom from Rom. 16.27 To God only wise be glory through Jesus Christ for ever Amen Page 417. God's Infinite Power from Job 26.14 Lo these are parts of his ways but how little a portion is heard of him But the Thunder of his Power who can understand Page 493. God's Infinite Holiness From Exod. 15.11 Who is like unto thee O Lord among the Gods Who is like thee glorious in holiness fearful in praises doing wonders Page 577. God's Infinite Goodness from Mark 10.18 And Jesus said unto him Why callest thou me good There is none good but one that is God Page 697. The Dominion of God from Psal 103.19 The Lord hath prepared his Throne in the Heavens and his Kingdom ruleth over all Page 787. God's Infinite Patience from Nahum 1.3 The Lord is slow to Anger and great in Power and will not all acquit the Wicked The Lord hath his way in the Whirlwind and in the Storm and the Clouds are the Dust of his feet A DISCOURSE UPON THE Existence of God Psalm 14.1 The fool hath said in his heart there is no God they are corrupt they have done abominable Works there is none that doth good THIS Psalm is a description of the deplorable corruption by Nature of every Son of Adam since the withering of that Common Root Some restrain it to the Gentiles as a Wilderness full of Bryars and Thorns as not concerning the Jews the Garden of God planted by his Grace and watered by the Dew of Heaven
directions upon emergent occasions In counting the actions of others to be good or bad as they sute with or spurn against our fancies and humors Man would make himself the Rule of God and give laws to his Creator In striving against his Law Disapproving of his Methods of Government in the world in impatience in our particular concerns envying the gifts and prosperity of others Corrupt matter or ends of Prayer or praise Bold interpretations of the Judgments of God in the world Mixing Rules in the Worship of God with those which have been ordained by him Suting interpretations of Scripture with our own minds and humors Falling off from God after some fair compliances when his Will grates upon us and crosseth ours 2. Man would be his own end This is natural and universal This is seen in frequent self applauses and inward overweening reflections In ascribing the glory of what we do or have to our selves In desire of self pleasing Doctrines In being highly concerned in injuries done to our selves and little or not at all concerned for injuries done to God In trusting in our selves In workings for Carnal self against the light of our own Consciences this is a usurping Gods prerogative vilifying God destroying God Man would make any thing his end or happiness rather than God This appears in the fewer thoughts we have of him than of any thing else In the greedy pursuit of the world In the strong addictedness to sensual pleasures In paying a service upon any success in the world to instruments more than to God This is a debasing God in setting up a Creature But more in setting up a base lust T is a denying of God Man would make himself the end of all Creatures In pride using the Creatures contrary to the end God hath appointed This is to dishonour God And it is Diabolical Man would make himself the end of God In loving God because of some self pleasing benefits distributed by him In abstinence from some sins because they are against the interest of some other beloved Corruption In performing duties meerly for a selfish interest which is evident in unwealdiness in Religious duties where self is not concern'd In calling upon God only in a time of necessity In begging his assistance to our own projects after we have by our own Craft laid the Plot. In impatience upon a refusal of our desires In selfish aims we have in our duties This is a vilifying God a dethroning him In unworthy imaginations of God universal in Man by nature Hence spring Idolatry Superstition Presumption the common disease of the world This is a vilifying God worse than Idolatry worse than absolute Atheism Natural desires to be distant from him No desires for the remembrance of him No desires of converse with him No desires of a through return to him No desire of any close imitation of him A DISCOURSE UPON GODS BEING A SPIRIT JOHN 4.24 God is a Spirit and they that Worship him must worship him in Spirit and in truth THE words are part of the Dialogue between our Saviour * Amiraut Paraph. sur Jean and the Samaritan Woman Christ intending to return from Judea to Galilee passed through the Country of Samaria a place inhabited not by Jews but a mixt Company of several Nations and some remainders of the posterity of Israel who escaped the Captivity and were returned from Assyria and being weary with his Journey arrived about the sixth hour or noon according to the Jews reckoning the time of the day at a Well that Jacob had digged which was of great account among the Inhabitants for the Antiquity of it as well as the usefulness of it in supplying their necessities He being thirsty and having none to furnish him wherewith to draw water at last comes a Woman from the City whom he desires to give him some water to drink The Woman perceiving him by his Language or Habit to be a Jew wonders at the question since the hatred the Jews bore the Samaritans was so great that they would not vouchsafe to have any Commerce with them not only in Religious but Civil affairs and Common Offices belonging to Man-kind Hence our Saviour takes occasion to publish to her the Doctrine of the Gospel and excuseth her rude Answer by her Ignorance of him And tells her that if she had askt him a greater matter even that which concern'd her Eternal Salvation he would readily have granted it notwithstanding the rooted hatred between the Jews and Samaritans and bestowed a water of a greater vertue the water of life * ver 10. Or living water The Woman is no less astonished at his reply than she was at his first demand It was strange to hear a Man speak of giving living water to one of whom he had beg'd the water of that Spring and had no Vessel to draw any to quench his own thirst She therefore demands whence he could have this water that he speaks of * ver 11. since she conceived him not greater than Jacob who had digged that Well and drunk of it Our Saviour desirous to mak a progress in that work he had begun extols the Water he spake of above this of the Well from its particular vertue fully to refresh those that drank of it and be as a Cooling and Comforting Fountain within them of more efficacy than that without * ver 13.14 The Woman conceiving a good opinion of our Saviour desires to partake of this Water to save her pains in coming dayly to the Well not apprehending the Spirituality of Christs discourse to her * ver 15. Christ finding her to take some pleasure in his Discourse partly to bring her to a sense of her sin before he did Communicate the excellency of his grace bids her return back to the City and bring her Husband with her to him * ver 16. She freely acknowledges that she had no Husband whether having some check of Conscience at present for the unclean life she led or loth to lose so much time in the gaining this water so much desired by her * ver 17. Our Saviour takes an occasion from this to lay open her sin before her and to make her sensible of her own wicked life and the prophetick excellency of himself and tells her she had had five Husbands to whom she had been false and by whom she was divorced and the person she now dwelt with was not her lawful Husband and in living with him she violated the Rights of Marriage and encreased guilt upon her Conscience * ver 18. The Woman being affected with this discourse and knowing him to be stranger that could not be certified of those things but in an extraordinary way begins to have a high esteem of him as a Prophet * 〈◊〉 19. And upon this opinion she esteems him able to decide a question which had been Canvast between them and the Jews about the place of Worship
* â—â—r 20. Their Fathers Worshipping in that Mountain and the Jews affirming Jerusalem to be a place of worship She pleads the Antiquity of the worship in this place Abraham having built an Altar there Gen. 12.7 and Jacob upon his return from Syria And surely had the place been capable of an exception such persons as they and so well acquainted with the Will of God would not have pitched upon that place to Celebrate their worship Antiquity hath too too often bewitched the minds of Men and drawn them from the revealed Will of God Men are more willing to imitate the outward actions of their famous Ancestors than conform themselves to the revealed Will of their Creator The Samaritans would imitate the Patriarchs in the place of worship but not in the faith of the worshippers Christ answers her that this question would quickly be resolved by a new state of the Church which was neer at hand and neither Jerusalem which had now the precedency nor that Mountain should be of any more value in that concern than any other place in the world * ver 21. But yet to make her sensible of her sin and that of her Country-men tells her that their Worship in that Mountain was not according to the Will of God he having long after the Altars built in this place fixed Jerusalem as the place of Sacrifices besides they had not the knowledge of that God which ought to be worshipped by them but the Jews had the true object of Worship and the true manner of worship according to the declaration God had made of himself to them * ver â—â— But all that service shall vanish the vail of the Temple shall be rent in twain and that Carnal worship give place to one more Spiritual shadows shall fly before substance and truth advance it self above figures and the worship of God shall be with the strength of the Spirit such a worship and such worshippers doth the Father seek * ver 23. For God is a Spirit and those that Worship him must Worship him in Spirit and in truth The design of our Saviour is to declare that God is not taken with external worship invented by men no nor Commanded by himself and upon that this reason because he is a Spiritual essence infinitely above gross and Corporeal matter and is not taken with that pomp which is a pleasure to our Earthly imaginations 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Some translate it just as the words lie Spirit is God * Vulgar lat Illyrc Clav. But it is not unusual both in the old and new Testament languages to put the predicate before the subject as Psal 5.9 Their throat is an open Sepulchre in the Hebrew a Sepulchre open their throat So Psa 111.3 His work is honourable and glorious Heb. Honour and glory his work And there wants not one example in the same Evangelist Joh. 1.1 And the word was God Greek and God was the word In all the predicate or what is ascribed is put before the subject to which it is ascribed One tells us and he an head of a party that hath made a disturbance in the Church of God * Eâ—â—â—â—â—p Institut lib. 4. cap. 3. that this place is not aptly brought to prove God to be a Spirit And the reason of Christ runs not thus God is of a Spiritual Essence and therefore must be worshipped with a Spiritual worship for the Essence of God is not the Foundation of his worship but his Will for then we were not to worship him with a Corporal worship because he is not a body but with an invisible and Eternal worship because he is invisible and eternal But the nature of God is the foundation of worship the Will of God is the Rule of worship the matter and manner is to be performed according to the Will of God But is the nature of the object of worship to be excluded No as the object is so ought our Devotion to be Spiritual as he is Spiritual God in his Commands for worship respected the discovery of his own nature in the Law he respected the discovery of his mercy and justice and therefore Commanded a worship by Sacrifices a Spiritual worship without those institutions would not have declared those Attributes which was Gods end to display to the world in Christ And tho the nature of God is to be respected in worship yet the obligations of the Creature are to be considered God is a Spirit therefore must have a Spiritual worship The Creature hath a body as well as a Soul and both from God and therefore ought to worship God with the one as well as the other since one as well as the other is freely bestowed upon him The Spirituality of God was the foundation of the change from the Judaical carnal worship to a more Spiritual and Evangelical God is a Spirit That is he hath nothing Corporeal no mixture of matter not a visible substance a bodily form * Melancton He is a Spirit not a bare Spiritual substance But an understanding willing Spirit holy wise good and just Before Christ spake of the Father * ver 23. the first person in the Trinity Now he speaks of God Essentially The word Father is personal the word God essential So that our Saviour would render a reason not from any one person in the blessed Trinity but from the Divine nature why we should worship in Spirit and therefore makes use of the word God the being a Spirit being Common to the other persons with the Father This is the reason of the proposition verse 23. Of a Spiritual Worship Every nature delights in that which is like it and distasts that which is most different from it If God were Corporeal he might be pleased with the victims of beasts and the beautiful Magnificence of Temples and the noyse of Musick But being a Spirit he cannot be gratified with carnal things He demands something better and greater than all those that Soul which he made that Soul which he hath endowed a Spirit of a frame sutable to his nature He indeed appointed Sacrifices and a Temple as shadows of those things which were to be most acceptable to him in the Messiah but they were imposed only till the time of Reformation * Heb. 9.10 Must Worship him Not they may or it would be more agreeable to God to have such a manner of worship But they must T is not exclusive of bodily worship for this were to exclude all publick worship in societies which cannot be performed without reverential postures of the body * Terniti The Gestures of the body are helps to worship and declarations of Spiritual acts We can scarcely worship God with our Spirits without some tincture upon the outward-man But he excludes all acts meerly Corporeal all resting upon an external service and devotion which was the Crime of the Pharisees and the general persuasion of the Jews
one as well as the other denies his spiritual nature This is worse for had it been lawful to represent God to the eye it could not have been done but by a bodily figure suted to the sense but since it is necessary to worship him it cannot be by a corporeal attendance without the operation of the Spirit A spiritual frame is more pleasing to God than the highest exterior adornments than the greatest gifts and the highest Prophetical illuminations The glory of the second Temple exceeded the glory of the first * Hag. 2.8 9. As God accounts the spiritual glory of Ordinances most beneficial for us so our spiritual attendance upon Ordinances is most pleasing to him He that offers the greatest services without it offers but flesh Hos 8.13 They sacrifice Flesh for the Sacrifices of my Offerings but the Lord accepts them not Spiritual frames are the Soul of Religious services all other carriages without them are contemptible to this Spirit We can never lay claim to that promise of God none shall seek my face in vain We affect a vain seeking of him when we want a due temper of Spirit for him And vain Spirits shall have vain returns 'T is more contrary to the nature of Gods Holiness to have communion with such than it is contrary to the nature of Light to have communion with Darkness To make use of this Vse 1. First it serves for information 1. If spiritual worship be required by God How sad is it for them that are so far from giving God a spiritual worship that they render him no worship at all I speak not of the neglect of publick but of private when men present not a devotion to God from one years end to the other The speech of our Saviour that we must worship God in Spirit and Truth implies that a worship is due to him from every one That is the common impression upon the Consciences of all men in the world if they have not by some constant course in gross sins hardned their Souls and stifled those natural sentiments There was never a Nation in the world without some kind of Religion and no Religion was ever without some modes to testifie a devotion The Heathens had their Sacrifices and Purifications and the Jews by Gods order had their rites whereby they were to express their Allegiance to God Consider 1. Worship is a duty incumbent upon all men 'T is a homage Mankind ows to God under the relation wherein he stands obliged to him 'T is a prime and immutable justice to own our Allegiance to him 'T is as unchangeable a truth that God is to be worshipped as that God is He is to be worshipped as God as Creator and therefore by all since he is the Creator of all the Lord of all and all are his Creatures and all are his Subjects Worship is founded upon Creation Psal 100.2 3. 'T is due to God for himself and his own essential excellency and therefore due from all 'T is due upon the account of mans nature The human rational nature is the same in all Whatsoever is due to God upon the account of mans nature and the natural obligations he hath laid upon man is due from all men because they all enjoy the benefits which are proper to their nature Man in no state was exempted nor can be exempted from it In Paradise he had his Sabbath and Sacraments Man therefore dissolves the obligation of a reasonable nature by neglecting the worship of God Religion is in the first place to be minded As soon as Noah came out of the Ark he contrived not a Habitation for himself but an Altar for the Lord to acknowledge him the Author of his preservation from the Deluge * Gen. 8.20 And wheresoever Abraham came his first business was to erect an Altar and pay his arrears of gratitude to God before he ran upon the score for new mercies * Gen. 12.7 Gen. 13.4.18 He left a testimony of worship where ever he came 2. Wholly therefore to neglect it is a high degree of Atheism He that calls not upon God saith in his heart there is no God and seems to have the sentiments of natural Conscience as to God stifled in him * Psal 14.1 4 It must arise from a conceit that there is no God or that we are equal to him adoration not being due from persons of an equal state or that God is unable or unwilling to take notice of the adoring acts of his Creatures What is any of these but an undeifying the supream Majesty When we lay aside all thoughts of paying any homage to him we are in a fair way opinionatively to deny him as much as we practically disown him Where there is no knowledge of God that is no acknowledgment of God a gap is opened to all licentiousness * Hos 4.1 2. And that by degrees brawns the Conscience and raseth out the sense of God Those forsake God that forget his holy Mountain * Isa 65.11 They do not practically own him as the Creator of their Souls or bodies 'T is the sin of Cain who turning his back upon worship is said to go out from the presence of the Lord * Gen. 4.16 Not to worship him with our Spirits is against his Law of Creation Not to worship him at all is against his act of Creation Not to worship him in truth is Hypocrisie Not to worship him at all is Atheism whereby we render our selves worse than the worms in the Earth or a toad in a Ditch 3. To perform a worship to a false God or to the true God in a false manner seems to be less a sin than to live in perpetual neglects of it Though it be directed to a false Object instead of God yet it is under the notion of a God and so is an acknowledgement of such a Being as God in the world whereas the total neglect of any worship is a practical denying of the existence of any supream Majesty Whosoever constantly omits a publick and private worship transgresses against an universally received dictate For all Nations have agreed in the common notion of worshipping God though they have disagreed in the several modes and rites whereby they would testifie that adoration By a worship of God though superstitious a veneration and reverence of such a being is maintained in the world whereas by a total neglect of worship he is vertually disowned and discarded if not from his existence yet from his Providence and Government of the world All the mercies we breath in are denied to flow from him A foolish worship owns Religion though it bespatters it As if a stranger coming into a Country mistakes a Subject for the Prince and pays that reverence to the Subject which is due to the Prince though he mistakes the object yet he owns an Authority or if he pays any respect to the true Prince of that Country after the mode of
Wisdom Power signify at a distance from us Let us frame in our minds a strong Idea of it 't is this makes so great a difference between the actions of one man and another one maintains actual thoughts of it another doth not tho' all believe it as a Perfection pertaining to the infiniteness of his Essence David or rather a greater than David had God always before him there was no time no occasion wherein he did not stir up some lively thoughts of him Psal 16.8 Let us have right notions of it imagine not God as a great King sitting only in his Majesty in Heaven acting all by his Servants and Ministers This saith one * Musculuâ— is a Childish and unworthy conceit of God and may in time bring such a conceiver by degrees to deny his Providence the denyal of this Perfection is an Axe at the Root of Religion if it be not deeply imprinted in the mind personal Religion grows faint and feeble who would fear that God that is not imagin'd to be a Witness of his actions Who would worship a God at a distance both from the Worship and Worshipper * Drexel Let us believe this Truth but not with an idle Faith as if we did not believe it Let us know that as wheresoever the Fish moves it is in the Water wheresoever the Bird moves it is in the Air so wheresoever we move we are in God as there is not a moment but we are under his Mercy so there is not a moment that we are out of his Presence Let us therefore look upon nothing without thinking who stands by without reflecting upon him in whom it Lives Moves and hath its Being When you view a man you fix your eyes upon his Body but your mind upon that invisible part that acts every member by life and motion and makes them fit for your converse Let us not bound our thoughts to the Creatures we see but pierce through the Creature to that boundless God we do not see we have continual remembrancers of his Presence the Light whereby we see and the Air whereby we live give us perpetual notices of it and some weak resemblance why should we forget it yea what a shame is our unmindfulness of it when every cast of our Eye every motion of our Lungs jogs us to remember it Light is in every part of the Air in every part of the World yet not mixt with any both remain entire in their own substance Let us not be worse than some of the Heathens who pressed this notion upon themselves for the spiriting their actions with Vertue That all places were full of God This was the means Basil used to prescribe upon a Question was askt him Omnia Diâ—plena How shall we do to be serious Mind Gods Presence How shall we avoid distractions in Service Think of Gods Presence How shall we resist Temptations Oppose to them the Presence of God 1. This will be a Shield against all Temptations God is present is enough to blunt the Weapons of Hell this will secure us from a ready complyance with any base and vile attractives and curb that head-strong Principle in our nature that would joyn hands with them the Thoughts of this would like the powerful Presence of God with the Israelites take off the Wheels from the Chariots of our sensitive Appetites and make them perhaps more slower at least towards a Temptation How did Peter fling off the Temptation which had worsted him upon a look from Christ the actuated faith of this would stifle the Darts of Satan and fire us with an anger against his sollicitations as strong as the Fire that inflames the Darts Moses his Sight of him that was Invisible strengthned him against the costly Pleasures and Luxuries of a Princes Court Heb. 11 27. We are utterly senseless of a Deity if we are not moved with this Item from our Consciences God is Present Had our first Parents actually consider'd the nearness of God to them when they were Tempted to Eat of the Forbidden Fruit they had not probably so easily been overcome by the Temptation What Soldier would be so base as to revolt under the Eye of a tender and obliging General Or what man so negligent of himself as to Rob a House in the Sight of a Judg Let us consider That God is as near to observe us as the Devil to sollicite us yea nearer the Devil stands by us but God is in us we may have a Thought the Devil knows not but not a Thought but God is actually present with as our Souls are with the Thoughts they think nor can any Creature attract our heart if our minds were fixed on that invisible Presence that contributes to that excellency and sustains it and considered that no Creature could be so present with us as the Creator is 2. It will be a Spur to Holy Actions What man would do an unworthy action or speak an unhandsom Word in the Presence of his Prince the Eye of the General inflames the Spirit of a Soldier Why did David keep Gods Testimonies Psal 119 168 because he consider'd that all his ways were before him because he was perswaded his ways were present with God Gods Precepts should be present with him The same was the cause of Jobs Integrity Job 31.4 Doth he not see my ways to have God in our Eye is the way to be sincere Gen 17. â— walk before me as in my Sight and be thou perfect Communion with God consists chiefly in an ordering our Ways as in the Presence of him that is Invisible This would make us spiritual rais'd and watchful in all our Passions if we consider'd that God is present with us in our Shops in our Chambers in our Walks and in our Meetings as present with us as with the Angels in Heaven who tho' they have a Presence of Glory above us yet have not a greater measure of his Essential Presence than we have What an awe had Jacob upon him when he consider'd God was present in Bethel Gen. 28.16 17 If God should appear visibly to us when we were alone should we not be reverent and serious before him God is every where about us he doth encompass us with his Presence should not Gods seeing us have the same influence upon us as our seeing God He is not more essentially present if he should so manifest himself to us than when he doth not Who would appear besmear'd in the presence of a great person or not be asham'd to be found in his Chamber in a nasty posture by some visitant Would not a man blush to be catched about some mean action tho' it were not an immoral Crime If this Truth were imprest upon our Spirits we should more blush to have our Souls daub'd with some loathsom Lust swarms of Sin like Egyptian Lice and Frogs creeping about our Heart in his Sight If the most sensual man be asham'd
so ever doth never contradict it self And this is so convincing an argument of the Existence of God that God never vouchsafed any Miracle or put forth any act of Omnipotency besides what was evident in the Creatures for the satisfaction of the Curiosity of any Atheist or the evincing of his Being as he hath done for the Evidencing those Truths which were not written in the book of nature or for the restoring a decayed worship or the protection or deliverance of his people Those Miracles in publishing the Gospel indeed did demonstrate the existence of some supream Power but they were not seals designedly affixt for that but for the confirmation of that truth which was above the ken of purblind Reason and purely the birth of Divine Revelation Yet what proves the Truth of any Spiritual Doctrine proves also in that act the Existence of the Divine Author of it The Revelation alwayes implies a Revealer and that which manifests it to be a Revelation manifests also the supream Revealer of it By the same light the Sun manifests other things to us it also manifests it self But what Miracles could rationally be supposed to work upon an Atheist who is not drawn to a sence of the Truth proclaimed aloud by so many wonders of the Creation Let us now proceed to the demonstration of the Atheists Folly T is a Folly to deny or doubt of a Soveraign Being incomprehensible in his Nature infinite in his Essence and Perfections independent in his Operations who hath given Being to the whole frame of sensible and intelligible Creatures and governs them according to their several natures by an unconceivable Wisdom who fills the Heavens with the Glory of his Majesty and the Earth with the influences of his Goodness 'T is a Folly inexcusable to renounce in this case all appeal to universal consent and the joynt assurances of the Creatures Reason 1. 'T is a Folly to deny or doubt of that which hath been the acknowledged Sentiment of all Nations in all places and ages There is no Nation but hath owned some kind of Religion and therefore no Nation but hath consented in the notion of a supream Creator and Governor 1. This hath been universal 2. It hath been constant and uninterrupted 3. Natural and innate First I. It hath been universally assented to by the Judgments and practices of all Nations in the World 1. No Nation hath been exempt from it All Histories of former and latter Ages have not produced any one Nation but fell under the force of this Truth Though they have differed in their Religions they have agreed in this Truth here both Heathen Turk Jew and Christian center without any Contention No quarrel was ever commenced upon this score though about other opinions Wars have been sharp and Enmities Irriconcilable The notion of the Existence of a Deity was the same in all Indians as well as Britains Americans as well as Jews It hath not been an opinion peculiar to this or that people to this or that Sect of Philosophers but hath been as universal as the reason whereby men are differenc'd from other Creatures so that some have rather defin'd man by animal religiosum then animal rationale 'T is so twisted with Reason that a man cannot be accounted rational unless he own an object of Religion Therefore he that understands not this renounceth his Humanity when he renounceth a Divinity No instance can be given of any one people in the World that disclaimed it It hath been owned by the Wise and ignorant by the learned and stupid by those who had no other guide but the dimmest light of Nature as well as by those whose Candles were snuft by a more polite Education and that without any solemne debate and contention Though some Philosophers have been known to change their opinions in the concerns of Nature yet none can be proved to have absolutely changed their opinion concerning the Being of a God One died for asserting one God none in the former Ages upon record hath died for asserting no God Go to the utmost bounds of America you may find people without some broken peices of the Law of nature but not without this signature and stamp upon them though they wanted commerce with other Nation except as Savage as themselves in whom the light of nature was as it were sunk into the Socket who are but one remove from Brutes who cloath not their bodies cover not their shame yet were they as soon known to own a God as they were known to be a people they were possessed with the Notion of a Supream Being the Author of the World had an object of Religious adoration put up Prayers to the Deity they owned for the good things they wanted and the diverting the evils they feared no people so untamed where absolute perfect Atheism hath gained a footing Not one Nation of the World known in the time of the Romans that were without their Ceremonies whereby they signified their devotion to a Deity They had their places of Worship where they made their Vows presented their Prayers offered their Sacrifices and implored the Assistance of what they thought to be a God And in their distresses run immediatly without any deliberation to their Gods so that the notion of a Deity was as inward and setled in them as their own Souls and indeed runs in the blood of mankind the distempers of the understanding cannot utterly deface it you shall scarce find the most distracted Bedlam in his raving sits to deny a God though he may Blaspheme and fancy himself one 2. Nor doth the Idolatry and multiplicity of Gods in the World weaken but confirm this universal consent Whatsoever unworthy conceits men have had of God in all Nations or whatsoever degrading representations they have made of him yet they all concur in this that there is a Supream Power to he ador'd Tho one People worshipped the Sun others the Fire and the Egyptians gods out of their Rivers Gardens and Fields yet the Notion of a Deity existent who created and governed the World and conferred daily benefits upon them was maintained by all tho applyed to the Stars and in part to those sordid Creatures All the Dagons of the World establish this Truth and fall down before it Had not the Nations owned the Being of a God they had never offered Incense to an Idol Had there not been a deep impression of the Existence of a Deity they had never exalted Creatures below themselves to the honour of Altars Men could not so easily have been deceived by forged Deities if they had not had a Notion of a real one Their fondness to set up others in the place of God evidenced a natural knowledg that there was one who had a right to be worshipped If there were not this sentiment of a Deity no man would ever have made an Image of a peice of Wood worshipp'd it pray'd to it and said deliver me for thou art my God
as well as Heathens who used the outward Ceremonies not as signs of better things but as if they did of themselves please God and render the worshippers accepted with him without any sutable frame of the inward man * Amirald in loc It is as if he had said now you must separate your selves from all carnal modes to which the service of God is now tyed and render a worship chiefly consisting in the affectionate motions of the heart and accommodated more exactly to the condition of the object who is a Spirit In Spirit and Truth * Amirald in loc The Evangelical Service now required has the advantage of the former that was a Shadow and Figure this the Body and Truth * Muscul Spirit say some is here opposed to the legal Ceremonies Truth to hypocritical services or * Chemnit rather truth is opposed to shadows and an opinion of worth in the outward action 't is principally opposed to external Rites because our Saviour saith v. 23. The hour comes and â—oâ— is c. Had it been opposed to Hypocrisy Christ had said no new thing For God always required Truth in the inward parts and all true Worshippers had served him with a sincere Conscience and single Heart The old Patriarks did worship God in Spirit and Truth as taken for sincerity Such a Worship was always and is perpetually due to God because he always was and eternally will be a Spirit * Musâ—al And it is said the Father seeks such to worship him not shall seek He always sought it it always was performed to him by one or other in the world And the Prophets had always rebuked them for resting upon their outward Solemnities Isa 58.7 and Micah 6.8 But a Worship without legal Rites was proper to an Evangelical State and the times of the Gospel God having then exhibited Christ and brought into the world the substance of those shadows and the end of those institutions There was no more need to continue them when the true reason of them was ceased All Laws do naturally expire when the true reason upon which they were first framed is changed Or by Spirit may be meant such a Worship as is kindled in the heart by the breath of the holy Ghost Since we are dead in sin a spiritual light and flame in the heart sutable to the nature of the object of our worship cannot be raised in us without the operation of a supernatural Grace And though the Fathers could not worship God without the Spirit yet in the Gospel-times there being a fuller effusion of the Spirit the Evangelical State is called the administration of the Spirit and the newness of the Spirit 2 Cor. 3.8 in opposition to the legal Oeconomy entitled the oldness of the Letter * Rom. 7.6 The Evangelical State is more suted to the Nature of God than any other Such a Worship God must have whereby he is acknowledged to be the true Sanctifier and Quickner of the Soul The nearer God doth approach to us and the more full his manifestations are the more spiritual is the Worship we return to God The Gospel pares off the rugged parts of the Law and Heaven shall remove what is material in the Gospel and change the Ordinances of Worship into that of a Spiritual Praise In the words there is 1. A Proposition God is a Spirit The Foundation of all Religion 2. An Inference they that worship him c. As God a Worship belongs to him as a Spirit a spiritual Worship is due to him in the inference we have 1. The manner of Worship in Spirit and Truth 2. The necessity of such a Worship must The Proposition declares the Nature of God the Inference the Duty of Man The Observations lie plain Ob. 1. God is a pure spiritual Being He is a Spirit 2. The Worship due from the Creature to God must be agreeable to the Nature of God and purely spiritual 3. The Evangelical State is suted to the Nature of God For the first D. God is a pure spiritual Being 'T is the Observation of one * Episcop insti tut l. 4. c. 3. that the plain assertion of Gods being a Spirit is found but once in the whole Bible and that is in this place which may well be wondred at because God is so often described with hands feet eyes and ears in the form and figure of a Man The spiritual Nature of God is deducible from many places but not any where as I remember asserted totidem verbis but in this Text Some alledge that place 2 Cor. 3.17 the Lord is that Spirit for the proof of it but that seems to have a different sense In the Text the Nature of God is described in that place the operations of God in the Gospel * Amyrald in loc 'T is not the Ministry of Moses or that old Covenant which communicates to you that Spirit it speaks of but it is the Lord Jesus and the Doctrin of the Gospel delivered by him whereby this Spirit and Liberty is dispensed to you He opposes here the Liberty of the Gospel to the Servitude of the Law 'T is from Christ that a Divine Vertue diffuseth it self by the Gospel 't is by him not by the Law that we partake of that Spirit * Suarez de Deo vol. 1. P. 9. Col. 2. The Spirituality of God is as evident as his Being If we grant that God is we must necessarily grant that he cannot be corporeal because a Body is of an imperfect Nature It will appear incredible to any that acknowledge God the first Being and Creator of all things that he should be a massy heavy Body and have Eyes and Ears Feet and hands as we have For the explication of it 1. Spirit is taken various ways in Scripture It signifies sometimes an aereal substance as Psal 11.6 A horrible Tempest Heb. A Spirit of Tempest Sometimes the breath which is a thin substance Gen. 6.17 All Flesh wherein is the breath of Life Heb. Spirit of Life A thin substance though it be material and corporeal is called Spirit And in the bodies of living Creatures that which is the principle of their actions is called Spirits the animal and vital Spirits And the finer parts extracted from Plants and Minerals we call Spirits Those volatile parts separated from that gross matter wherein they were immerst because they come nearest to the nature of an incorporeal substance And from this notion of the word 't is translated to signifie those substances that are purely immaterial as Angels and the Souls of Men. Angels are called Spirits Psal 104.4 who makes his Angels Spirits * Heb. 1.14 And not only good Angels are so called but evil Angels Mark 1.27 Souls of men are called Spirits Eccl. 12. And the Soul of Christ is called so John 19.30 whence God is called the God of the Spirits of all Flesh Numb 22.16 and Spirit is opposed to Flesh Isa
the Spirit * 2 Cor. 7.1 By the one we defile the Body by the other we defile the Spirit which in regard of its Nature is of kin to the Creator To wrong one who is neer of kin to a Prince is worse than to injure an inferior Subject When we make our Spirits which are most like to God in their Nature and framed according to his Image a stage to act vain imaginations wicked desires and unclean affections we wrong God in the excellency of his Work and reflect upon the nobleness of the Patern we wrong him in that part where he hath stampt the most signal Character of his own spiritual nature we defile that whereby we have only converse with him as a Spirit which he hath ordered more immediately to represent him in this Nature than all corporeal things in the world can and make that Spirit with whom we desire to be joyned unfit for such a knot Gods Spirituality is the root of his other perfections We have already heard he could not be infinite omnipresent immutable without it Spiritual sins are the greatest root of bitterness within us As grace in our Spirits renders us more like to a spiritual God so spiritual sins bring us into a conformity to a degraded Devil * Eph. 2.2 3. Carnal sins change us from men to brutes and spiritual sins devest us of the Image of God for the Image of Satan We should by no means make our Spirits a Dung-hill which bear upon them the Character of the spiritual Nature of God and were made for his residence Let us therefore behave our selves towards God in all those ways which the spiritual nature of God requires us A DISCOURSE OF Spiritual Worship HAVING thus dispatcht the first proposition God is a Spirit It will not be amiss to handle the inference our Saviour makes from that proposition which is the second observation propounded Doct. That the Worship due from us to God ought to be Spiritual and Spiritually performed Spirit and Truth are understood variously Either we are to Worship God 1. Not by legal ceremonies The Evangelical administration being called Spirit in opposition to the legal ordinances as carnal and Truth in opposition to them as typical As the whole Judaical service is called flesh so the whole Evangelical service is called Spirit Or Spirit may be opposed to the worship at Jerusalem as it was carnal Truth to the worship on the Mount Gerizim because it was false They had not the true object of worship nor the true Medium of worship as those at Jerusalem had Their worship should cease because it was false and the Jewish worship should cease because it was carnal There is no need of a Candle when the Sun spreads it beams in the Air no need of those Ceremonies when the Sun of righteousness appeared They only served for Candles to instruct and direct men till the time of his coming The shadows are chased away by the displaying the substance so that they can be of no more use in the worship of God since the end for which they were instituted is expired and that discovered to us in the Gospel which the Jews sought for in vain among the baggage and stuff of their Ceremonies 2. With a Spiritual and sincere frame In Spirit i. e. with Spirit with the inward operations of all the faculties of our Souls and the cream and flower of them And the reason is because there ought to be a worship sutable to the nature of God And as the worship was to be Spiritual so the exercise of that worship ought to be in a Spiritual manner * Lingend Tom. 2. p. 777. It shall be a worship in Truth because the true God shall be adored without those vain imaginations and phantastick resemblances of him * Taylors Exemplar Preface § 30. which were common among the blind Gentiles and contrary to the glorious nature of God and unworthy ingredients in Religious services It shall be a worship in Spirit without those carnal rites the degenerate Jews rested on Such a posture of Soul which is the life and ornament of every service God looks for at your hands There must be some proportion between the object adored and the manner in which we adore it It must not be a meer Corporeal worship because God is not a body but it must rise from the Center of our Soul because God is a Spirit If he were a body a bodily worship might sute him Images might be fit to represent him but being a Spirit our bodily services enter us not into communion with him Being a Spirit we must banish from our minds all carnal imaginations of him and separate from our Wills all cold and dissembled affections to him We must not only have a loud voice but an elevated Soul not only a bended knee but a broken heart not only a supplicating tone but a groaning Spirit not only a ready ear for the word but a receiving heart and this shall be of greater value with him than the most costly outward services offered at Gerizim or Jerusalem Our Saviour certainly meant not by worshipping in Spirit only the matter of the Evangelical service as opposed to the legal administration without the manner wherein it was to be performed T is true God always sought a worship in Spirit he expected the heart of the worshipper should joyn with his instituted rights of adoration in every exercise of them But he expects such a carriage more under the Gospel administration because of the clearer discoveries of his nature made in it and the greater assistances conveyed by it I shall therefore 1. Lay down some general propositions 2. Shew what this Spiritual worship is 3. Why we must offer to God a Spiritual service 4. The Vse 1. Some general propositions Proposition 1. First The right exercise of worship is founded upon and riseth from the Spirituality of God * Ames medul lib. 2. cap. 4. § 20. The first ground of the worship we render to God is the infinite excellency of his nature which is not only one attribute but results from all For God as God is the object of worship and the Notion of God consists not in thinking him wise good just but all those infinitely beyond any Conception And hence it follows that God is an object infinitely to beloved and honoured His goodness is sometimes spoken of in Scripture as a motive of our homage Psal 130.4 There is forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared Fear in the Scripture dialect signifies the whole worship of God Acts 10.35 But in every Nation he that fears him is accepted of him * So 2 Kings 17.32 33. If God should act towards men according to the rigors of his Justice due to them for the least of their Crimes there could be no exercise of any affection but that of despair which could not engender a worship of God which ought to be joyned with love not
as considered in the Gospel Covenant his Power as well as his other Perfections are ingredients in that Cordial of Gods being our God We should never think of the Excellency of the Divine Nature without considering the Duties they demand and gathering the Hony they present 2. Obs The stability of a gracious Soul depends vpon the Wisdom as well as the Power of God It would be a disrepute to the Almightiness of God if that should be totally vanquish'd which was introduc'd by his Mighty Arm and rooted in the Soul by an irresistible Grace It would speak a want of Streng h to maintain it or a change of Resolution and so would be no honour to the Wisdom of his first design 'T is no part of the wisdom of an Artificer to let a work wherein he determin'd to shew the greatness of his Skâ—ll to be dash'd in pieces when he hath power to preserve it God design'd every gracious Soul for a piece of his workmanship * Eph. 2.10 What to have the Skill of his Grace defeated If any Soul which he hath graciously conquer'd should be wrested from him what could be thought but that his Power is enfeebled If deserted by him what could be imagin'd but that he repented of his labour and alter'd his Counsel as if rashly undertaken These Romans were rugged Pieces and lay in a filthy quarry when God came first to smooth them for so the Apostle represents them with the rest of the Heathen Rom. 1.19 and would he throw them away or leave them to the power of his Enemy after all his pains he had taken with them to fit them for his Building Did he not foresee the designs of Satan against them what stratagems he would use to defeat his Purposes strip him of the honour of his work and would God so gratifie his Enemy and disgrace his own Wisdom The deserting of what hath been acted is a real Repentance and argues an Imprudence in the first resolve and attempt The Gospel is called the Manifold wisdom of God Eph. 3.10 the fruiâ— of it in the heart of any Person which is a main design of it hath a Title to the same Character and shall this Grace which is the product of this Gospel and therefore the birth of Manifold Wisdom be supprest 'T is at Gods hand we must seek our fixedness and establishment and act Faith upon these two Attributes of God Power is no ground to expect stability without Wisdom interesting the Agent in it and finding out and applying the Means for it Wisdom is naked without Power to act and Power is useless without Wisdom to direct They are these two Excellencies of the Deity the Apostle here pitches the Hope and Faith of the Converted Romans upon for their stability 3. Obs Perseverance of Believers in Grace is a Gospel Doctrine According to my Gospel My Gospel Ministerially according to that Gospel Doctrine I have taught you in this Epistle for as the Prophets were Comments upon the Law so are the Epistles upon the Gospel This very Doctrine he had discours'd of Rom. 8.38 39. where he tells them that neither death nor life the Terrors of a cruel death or the Allurements of an honourable and pleasant life nor Principalities and Powers with all their subtilty and strength not the things we have before us nor the Promises of a future felicity by either Angels in Heaven or Devils in Hell not the highest Angel nor the deepest Devil is able to separate us us Romans from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus So that According to my Gospel may be according to that Declaration of the Gospel which I have made in this Epistle which doth not only promise the first creating Grace but the perfecting and crowning Grace for not only the being of Grace but the health liveliness and perpetuity of Grace is the fruit of the New Covenant Jer. 32.40 4. Observe That the Gospel is the sole Means of a Christians Establishment According To my Gospel that is By my Gospel The Gospel is the Instrumental cause of our Spiritual life 't is the cause also of the Continuance of it 't is the Seed whereby we were born and the Milk whereby we are nourish'd †1 Pet. 1.23 't is the Power of God to salvation ‖ 1 Pet. 2.2 and therâ—fore to all the degrees of it John 17.17 Sanctifie them by thy Truth or through thy Truth by or through his Truth he sanctifies us and by the same Truth he establisheth us The first Sanctification and the progress of it the first lineaments and the last colours are wrought by the Gospel The Gospel therefore ought to be known studied and considered by us 'T is the Charter of our Inheritance and the security for our standing The Law acquaints us with our Duty but contributes nothing to our strength and settlement 5. Observe The Gospel is nothing else but the Revelation of Christ Verse 25. According to my Gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ The discovery of the Mystery of Redemption and Salvation in and by him 'T is Genitivus objecti that Preaching wherein Christ is declared and set out with the Benefits accruing by him This is the priviledge the Wisdom oâ— God reserved for the latter Times which the Old Testament-Church had only under a Vail 6. 'T is a part of the Excellency of the Gospel that it had the Son of God for its Publisher The Preaching of Jesus Christ It was first preached to Adam in Paradise by God and afterwards publish'd by Christ in Person to the Inhabitants of Judea It was not the Invention of Man but Copied from the bosom of the Father by him that lay in his Bosom The Gospel we have is the same which our Saviour himself preached when he was in the World He preached it not to the Romans but the same Gospel he preached is transmitted to the Romans It therefore Commands our respect who ever slights it 't is as much as if he slighted Jesus Christ himself were he in Person to sound it from his own Lips The validity of a Proclamation is derived from the Authority of the Prince that dictates it and orders it yet the greater the Person that publisheth it the more dishonour is cast upon the Authority of the Prince that enjoyns it if it be contemn'd The Everlasting God ordain'd it and the Eternal Son publish'd it 7. The Gospel was of an Eternal Resolution though of a temporary Revelation Verse 25. According to the Revelation of the Mystery which was kept secret since the World began 'T is an Everlasting Gospel It was a Promise before the world began Tit. 1.2 It was not a new Invention but only kept secret among the Arcana in the Breast of the Almighty It was hidden from Angels for the depths of it are not yet fully made known to them their desire to look into it speaks yet a deficiency in their Knowledge of it * 1